Critical Design Issues

Undergraduate | 2026

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Area/Catalogue
GRAP 2001
Course ID icon
Course ID
201229
Level of study
Level of study
Undergraduate
Unit value icon
Unit value
6
Course level icon
Course level
2
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Inbound study abroad and exchange
Inbound study abroad and exchange
The fee you pay will depend on the number and type of courses you study.
Yes
University-wide elective icon
University-wide elective course
Yes
Single course enrollment
Single course enrolment
Yes
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Note:
Course data is interim and subject to change

Course overview

Contemporary communication design is a social and political undertaking that operates at varying levels of public visibility. As such, theoretical and critical inquiry should be made of its processes and language, its motivations and modes of practice, its relationships with ideologies and technologies, and its intended and unintended effects on users and audiences. The course in Critical Design Issues builds upon learning from the previous course, Design Perspectives, and presents a theme-based over-view of key theories, debates and discourse in contemporary communication design, and poses philosophical and ethical questions that require students to reflect on their emerging skills, attitudes, identity and purpose as designers in a rapidly changing world.

Course learning outcomes

  • Describe and evaluate contemporary communication design practices from a range of contexts, with reference to their social, cultural, ethical, and environmental roles and responsibilities
  • Recognise and reflect on the philosophical positions of a selection of contemporary designers and apply understanding of those positions to arguments about contemporary design practice
  • Critically reflect on the potential role of communication design in developing more socially equitable and ecologically sustainable objects, images and systems
  • Identify and apply basic research methods to individual and collaborative outcomes in academic discourse across a choice of themes and formats and use appropriate methods of academic attribution

Prerequisite(s)

N/A

Corequisite(s)

N/A

Antirequisite(s)

N/A